Job Discussion Forums

[Aristotle]

6,152 Non Chinese Teachers Registered on Taiwan!
Police give foreigner count
A total of 512,980 foreigners were legally staying or residing in the country at the end of last month, according to a report released by the National Police Admin-istration (NPA) over the weekend. Among them, 437,140 possessed resident visas, while 73,525 had entered the country on short-term visas for a maximum six-month stay. The remaining 2,315 had diplomatic visas or courtesy visas. Taoyuan County boasted the largest foreign population of 75,997, followed by Taipei County with 56,757 and Taipei City with 51,258. By occupation, laborers imported with the approval of the Council of Labor Affairs accounted for 276,039, with Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam as the top three sources. Teachers came in second with 6,152; followed by businesspeople, 4,095; engineers, 3,377 and missionaries, 1,691. Of the 73,525 foreigners who entered the country on short-term visas, 22,307 had overstayed their visas by the end of last month. Of those on short-term visas, 20,941 were Americans and 15,268 were Japanese.

6,152 Non Chinese Teachers Registered on Taiwan!

[wangtesol]

And the latest stats are that there are 7800 legally working teachers in South Korea according to the Guardian
http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,1512123,00.html

and 15,800 in Japan according to Asahi Shimbun
http://begunto.tripod.com/begunto/

So with a population of 22 million, Taiwan has a greater percentage of migrant English teachers per capita than Japan (126 million) or South Korea (48 million). It is all the more reason that these teachers in Taiwan ought to have recourse to labor law and labor unions.


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[Aristotle]

I agree but the last time a group of foreign workers tried to organize a union they were all deported.
Under current laws of the occupational government on Taiwan non Chinese nationals are prohibited from forming a union.
Laws put in place by this government are often ignored but there is also very strong resistance from local business and organized crime.
That means we either take the Hoffa approach and form an alliance with local organized crime gangs or become part of a pre existing union abroad. Neither of those options are acceptable.
Good luck!
A.